The 2nd Presidential Debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump wasn’t the complete wash-out that people were expecting!

After the release of the Access Hollywood tape recording, which documented Donald Trump making lewd comments about women and how he would like to grab them by their genitals, merely 48 hours prior to the 2nd Presidential Debate, the general consensus of the people was that the election was as good as over for Trump.

Surprisingly, though, that was not the case. Trump came out strong and hard at his opponent, something that was missing in the first Presidential debate.

In order to prevent Hillary from calling into question the shameful tape throughout the course of the debate, Trump addressed the scandalous tape at the very beginning and even apologized for it.

Trump: Right Back At You, Hillary!

The first evidence of Trump being better prepared to take on Hillary Clinton, this time, was his “tit for tat” attitude. Trump referred to a couple of women, both of whom had been abused by Bill Clinton and were present there at the time of the debate.

This was a throwback to Hillary Clinton’s bulldozer move in the previous debate, where she had brought up Alicia Machado’s name, a former Miss Universe who was fat-shamed and insulted by Trump in the past and Hillary had mentioned that she was one of the audience members at the time.

Hillary responded to this Trump tactic with an advice that she said that she had picked up from Michelle Obama: “When they go low, you go high”.

Hillary said that Trump never apologized for Mr. Khan (a war hero who had died fighting in Iraq), the Indiana Judge or a certain reporter (read: Megyn Kelly), all of whom Trump had verbally abused in the past.

Instead of giving a reason as to why he did not choose to apologize for all those things, Trump dived straight into how Hillary had never apologized for using unfair means for ousting Bernie Sanders from the Presidential race or giving an explanation for her missing emails.

Hillary’s Missing Emails

Hillary’s missing emails opened up a torrential argument, something that Hillary had to explain over and over again. “There is no evidence that any of the classified information landed up in the wrong hands,” repeated Hillary.

Trump refused to get off the subject, stressing that he would open up a federal investigation, appointing a new prosecutor just to look into the lies that Hillary has been feeding the nation.

“It’s lucky that we don’t have someone with the temperament of Donald Trump running the country,” joked Secretary Clinton.’

“—because you’d be in jail”, fired back Trump.

Obama Care Controversies

When they did manage to move onto the next audience question, which was about how Obama Care is no longer affordable anymore, both the Presidential Candidates had very different futures planned for the particular government aid.

Hillary wanted to fix it, saying that even though the premiums are way higher at the moment, making it unfeasible for middle class people to afford it, it has manage to elevate American health insurance by 90% in the past, something that is rarely seen in other countries.

Trump called Obama Care a complete and utter “disaster”, meaning that there are no way to fix it and dispelling of it is the only way to go.

Religion And Syria

Next, came the topic of “Islamaphobia”, something that Trump has been known to “suffer from” and has not been afraid to admit in the past.

Trump spoke first on the issue and according to him, people would stop fearing the Muslims if they begin reporting the problems as and when they see them, which did not sound very rational.

Taking the opportunity of Trump’s slip-up, Hillary barged in with the jargon fit for a political leader: “My vision of America is an America where everyone has a place” because “we are not at war with Islam”.

The argument on religion paved way for the matter of Syrian refugees, currently making headlines globally. While Hillary admitted that vetting should be done when a country lets in refugees from a foreign country, she refused to agree with Trump that religious discrimination should be a part of the vetting process.

“Are we going to have religious tests?” she asked, “We are a nation based on religious freedom.”

Trump, in turn, called out the wrong decision taken by Hillary and President Obama when they decided to go to war with Iraq.

“She has bad judgment, so bad judgment that’s she should never be allowed to be the president of the United States,” concluded Trump.

Tax Policy

Since Trump brought up Hillary’s emails, it was only a matter of time before Hillary reminded everyone about how Trump would not release his tax returns because he has avoided paying taxes and had shady financial relations with Russia.

Trump arrogantly accepted that he indeed got away with not paying taxes but only because Hillary never got rid of the “carried interest”, something that lets the wealthy get away with cheating taxes.

Trump also pointed to the fact that Hillary and President Obama’s administration has been working to increase taxes instead of decreasing them, to which Hillary replied, “Donald always takes care of Donald and people like Donald!”

ISIS And Aleppo

One of the lowest points of the debate came when Trump virtually blamed Hillary Clinton and President Obama for the formation of ISIS.

Trump said that it was because of the vacuum created by the President having to abandon the Iraq war midway that allowed a terrorist group like ISIS to be born.

Going back on the issue of the Syrian crisis, Hillary said that she would never deploy the U.S. military to senselessly attack the people in Aleppo because she still has faith on some of the rebels who are fighting the good fight in Syria.

“You don’t even know who the rebels are!” said Trump. And when asked what he thinks will happen if the Aleppo falls, Trump simply said, “It’s basically fallen.”

The debate ended on a slightly positive note though, thanks to an audience member asking both the candidates to point out one thing that they admired about each other.

“I respect his children,” said Hillary

“She does fight hard and she doesn’t quit,” said Trump.

Who Won The 2nd Presidential Debate?

Overall, even though Trump did manage to avoid burying himself in the grave that had been dug for him pre-debate, thanks to the video released by The Washington Post, Hillary still seemed to upstage him where knowledge about policies and composure is concerned.

While analysts at CNBC has called the 2nd Presidential debate a draw, The Washington Post has felt that Hillary Clinton came out victorious while Fox2Now has sided with Trump on the occasion.

Who do you think had the upper hand in the 2nd Presidential Debate? Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? Let us know below!